Local explorers hit Edmonton river valley for Indigenous-led walks

Local explorers are hitting the river valley on Saturday for the first of three Indigenous-led walks, where they can trace the footsteps of humans that inhabited the area thousands of years ago.

Their guide will be poet Naomi McIlwraith, who was born and raised in amiskwacîwâskahikan (the Cree word for Beaver Hills House, also known as Edmonton), with roots stretching back to the Red River Métis in southern Manitoba.

McIlwraith said she hopes her love for the North Saskatchewan River rubs off, allowing participants to feel as though the river is "somebody who they love and want to look after."

"We don't just have human relatives. We have non-human — or, I like to say deeper than human — relatives like the trees, the rocks, the river, water, the sun, the grass," said McIlwraith, who helps oversee programming at Fort Edmonton's Indigenous Peoples Experience.

The walks on August 5th, 19th and the 26th at different natural locations in the Edmonton area were organized by Sierra Club Canada and sponsored by Alberta Ecotrust.

Other guides include Dwayne Donald, a descendent of the Papaschase Cree and education professor at the University of Alberta and local Métis artist Krista Leddy.

The aim is to connect participants to the ecological richness of Edmonton's natural spaces through Indigenous stories, culture and worldview.

"Because we are guests on their land and because we seek to uplift local and Indigenous voices for environmental justice, which includes respect for and accountability to treaty rights," said Mitchell Galarneau, a Sierra educator who organized the walks.

McIlwraith, whose one- to two-hour walk begins at Whitemud Park, notes that there is evidence of human habitation for "2,000 years, but possibly even twice as long as that."

She has logged many hours on the North Saskatchewan River, canoeing for three months in 1989 from Rocky Mountain House to Lake Winnipeg, then up the Winnipeg River to Thunder Bay, Ont..

At the time she knew little about her heritage — only finding out upon her return that her Indigenous great uncle was a guide who drowned on the Winnipeg River in 1914.

"What's happening now is we're reclaiming and we're recovering those stories and many of those stories are in our relationships with our deeper than human relatives."

Interested participants can sign up at sierraclub.ca